Write What You Don't Know: An Accessible Manual for Screenwriters

by Julian Hoxter

This title encourages you to move beyond your comfort zones in search of stories. "Write What You Don't Know" is a friendly manual for aspiring screenwriters. It encourages you to move beyond your comfort zones in search of stories. We all write what we know - how could we not? Writing what you don't know and doing it in an informed and imaginative way is what makes the process worthwhile. Hoxter draws on his wealth of experience teaching young film students to offer help with every aspect of the writing process, including how we come up with ideas in the first place. Light hearted and full of insight into the roundabout way film students approach their scripts, it also discusses the important issues like the difference between stories and plots and what your characters should be doing in the middle of act two. "Write What You Don't Know" contains examples and case studies from a wide range of movies, both mainstream and alternative such as "The Virgin Spring", "Die Hard", "The Ipcress File", "For The Birds", "(500) Days of Summer", "Juno", "Up In The Air", "Knocked Up" and "Brick". Julian Hoxter's  Write What You Don't Know  is an authentic standout among the growing number of titles treating screenwriting education. The book is fresh, often funny, always insightful, and enormously affirming not only for screenwriters but for all people who love worthy film and literature. The book is written in a language that is accessible and engaging and clear as light. At the same time as it engages the reader at every turn, it continually posits profound insights into the nature of creative expression in all its forms.
--Professor Richard Walter, UCLA Screenwriting Chair

A priceless antidote to illusory ideas about a greed and glory honesty and self-exploration by the writer. Hoxter urges us to avoid cliches, formulas and conventions by exploring those things that enlarge our own understanding of the world. Coupled with witty "how to" advice, the book's approach is personal, distinct and entirely to the point.
--Bill Nichols, Professor of Cinema at San Francisco State University, and author of  Engaging Cinema, Introduction to Documentary  (2nd edition) and  Representing Reality

Laughing as you learn is an uncommon delight. Julian Hoxter is a witty writer and supremely wise teacher of screenwriting. Reading this bountiful, often rollicking guide to the craft will leave any reader, of any age, geared up and ready to write smart and lively movies. If you aspire to become a screenwriter, this provocative and original book will open the creative door for you.
-- Joseph McBride, cowriter of  Rock 'n' Roll High School  and author of  Writing in Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless

A neat - and blessedly simple - new approach to screenplay structure. Storytelling has always been about the what, who, where, why when. Here's another W that ensures they all hang together neatly to make a saleable screenplay.
--Nicola Lees, Author,  Developing Factual/Reality TV Ideas From Concept to Pitch

Genres: Writing, Film

296 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2011

Reviews

[Luke Winders · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know that I would use this as a direct guide for writing a screenplay, but it was well-written, with many good ideas and lessons. Most importantly, it was encouraging and humorous. The method of using the screenplay format throughout to familiarize the reader with it while avoiding getting mired in technical instructive was a clever one.
The 4th star is warranted by the following example and observation: "You no doubt remember the story in which Abraham is instructed by his God to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove his obedience, only to be stopped at the last minute. This is one of the earliest literary examples of what later generations have come to call a 'dick move.'"
Brilliant!

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a reasonable amount of useful info in this book for writers, but I got fed up with his bantering style and some of his overused catch-phrases, and so didn't quite finish it.